jon.peyer

jon.peyer

Description

I'm interested in: Writing and EditingHow I can help: I am a student at NEIU looking for an open source project to get involved with as part of a class I am taking. I am willing to help with any of thefollowing:- writing new manuals- updating or improving existing manuals- proofreading manuals as they are being written- reviewing and fact checking.

those tasks were meant as a list to choose from (or think of your own) - I think you've made a good choice that will help bring the manual forward in an important way.

I very much value contributors who are realistic about how much they can and would like to do - it makes it a lot easier to plan and to understand what one can ask from someone, without making them uncomfortable. So - thanks :) And no worries!

So, what I'd like you to do is to open an issue at gitlab for your selected task, which we can use to more conveniently (and more publicly) communicate.

These snippets here are not exactly fun to use ... ;-)

Then the next step would be to check out the recently added Mac installation chapter, and to see if you can make something similar (or even better) for Windows.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. My class ends in May so I have about 14 weeks left in the course. I am a Windows user, so I would be willing to write the chapter on installing Inkscape for Windows. If I have time, I could also work on proof reading and editing. I have a heavy course load this semester and I don’t want to promise more than I can fulfil.

Cool, I didn't know anything like that would be part of university education, I love that :)How long will your course last?

It's not a problem that you don't have any previous Inkscape experience - this is a beginners' guide, so having beginners working on it and clarifying things is good, as the hurdles that people like you encounter are then still fresh on their mind, and are likely the same ones the readers stumble over.

Also, you being a native speaker is great, because I am not (I'm German), and I've translated this thing from French.

I don't know if you've already found it, but the discussions about the book mostly take place at gitlab:

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape-docs/manuals/

Please read the README, and take a peek into the issues section there.

If you are on Windows, then your first contribution could be writing the chapter for installation on Windows. It should be mostly version agnostic, and may have ample screenshots. The recently finished Mac chapter could be a good model. Requirements for good screenshots are listed here: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape-docs/manuals/issues/16

We also need someone to retake all (or some of) the remaining French-containing screenshots, in a good resolution.

Or we could use help styling and formatting the pages. This may need some inter-project communication and web (CSS + Javascript) skills, depending on whether we want to do it all manually, or whether we want to adapt the editing website to make editing easier first.

Proofreading and copyediting would be another way to contribute. The book has already been read by 3 non-native speakers who have given their feedback, and one native speaker has worked on some chapters. We need checking for consistency, and some work on making chapters follow a similar pattern.

Or there's the task of designing a layout, and adapting the pages' contents to it. I already have some stuff in mind and would be happy to discuss with someone.

You need to know that this manual is not a part of the Inkscape project that many people regularly work on, so it's maybe not the full open source project experience that you'd get here. I would make sure to be available for mentoring, but I cannot promise that many other people will come along and help us (although, we could also find a community-outreach job for you, to try and pull in others, and there's also some announcement work, and even some Inkscape program work to be done, when this is ready ;-))

Let me know if any of these tasks sound interesting to you.

As for the 'proof of contribution' (or whatever you'd call it), it was more or less that I would like to know what I'll be required to do for it (if anything). Not being a native speaker makes me a bit afraid of writing something like a recommendation or whatever could be needed ;-)

I hope to hear from you soon, and I'd very much love having your help here.

I have to say that I have no experience working with Inkscape. I found the program to be interesting and thought it would be something I would like to get involved with and learn more about. I have taken classes in client side web development, where we made a website and the professor went a bit into layout and design but other than that I don’t have much experience. While I don’t have experience in writing manuals, I have taken technical writing classes and have read through dozens of technical books for my classes. The subject for the class I need this project for is Open Source systems. The professor wants us to learn how to interact and contribute to the Open Source community. As of this moment, my professor has not said what type of confirmation he needs for our contributions but I can ask him and get back to you if that would help.

@jon.peyer Hi Jon, that's great, your help would be very welcome. To help you find the best task for you, can you tell us a bit about your level of experience with Inkscape, with layout/design, and web technology, or manual writing in general? What's your study subject? Do you need any kind of confirmation of your contributions? Maren

My name is Jon. I am a student at NEIU looking for an open source project to get involved with as part of a class I am taking. I would like to help with the Audacity manual in any way that is needed. Please let me how I can help with your project.

My name is Jon. I am a student at NEIU looking for an open source project to get involved with as part of a class I am taking. I would like to help with the Inkscape manual in any way that is needed. Please let me know how I can help with your project.

My name is Jon. I am a student at NEIU looking for an open source project to get involved with as part of a class I am taking. I would like to help with the Audacity manual in any way that is needed. Please let me how I can help with your project.